


Xavier's Alliance: Recruiting

by CrawlerCraft



Series: Xavier's Alliance [2]
Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Amazing X-Men - Freeform, Comics, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-14 05:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 16,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4552035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrawlerCraft/pseuds/CrawlerCraft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The X-Men start their search for Angel Salvadore, and are surprised to not only find her, but two other people willing to help them with the secret as to why Wolverine has come back from the dead. And surprisingly, one of them can probably find out the truth before Logan can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Logan's Old Friend

**Author's Note:**

> If you have not read the pilot, you may want to do that first. Marvel owns these awesome characters (and some of the locations *winks at die hard fans*)
> 
> Also, any editing during the series will be done after this particular fic is over.

Previously: Summer has begun, and the only X-Men members to stay in the mansion are Beast, Colossus, Storm, and Nightcrawler. However, a fifth member has shown up at their doorstep, and it just so happens that Wolverine was killed a while ago. What’s even weirder is that the spirit of Professor Xavier has appeared to the X-Men many times during this. Later, Wolverine began to see images of a former student named Angel Salvadore, involving an exploding house and her screams of sadness. The last thing that was heard from the spirit was that Angel was in Japan. Now, Wolverine, Colossus, Beast, and the soon to be wed, Nightcrawler and Storm are setting out to begin their search. Where is Angel and how is Logan with the X-Men? Maybe his ‘old friend’ will provide some information. 

 

Osaka, Japan.

 

The music was loud and the lights were bright. Some people were drunk, others were not. Either way, they were all having a good time. However, at a club like this, you would never expect to see someone outside in the night.

Her short, red dress and long, black hair blew in the summer evening’s breeze, followed by her cigarette smoke. She has been coming here for a while, so she is already used to the men hitting on her whenever they feel like it. But she will never take notice. Other than that, she would never expect anything surprising to happen at the nightclub.

“Sumimasen.”

She turned to see a man holding a phone. She thinks to herself, why do I suspect that this is for me? 

He hands her the phone and leaves.

She puts the phone up to her ear.“Kon'nichiwa?”

“I know you speak English, Yuriko.”

“What--?”

“Listen, I would tell you about what is going on now, but my team wants to meet you face to face, just in case we need proof.”

“Look buddy, I don’t know who you think--.”

“You can trust me, girl, ‘cause you’re the one who knew my name for many years.”

“I don’t--.” She paused. The voice sounded strangely familiar. But it was not possible. “Y—You’re supposed to be d-dead, Logan-Sama.”

“I’m sure you have questions, but they are not appropriate to ask right now.”

She thought for a minute before answering. “Where do you want to meet?”

“There’s an open road down south past the airport. Just drive around ‘till you see us.” And the call ended.

Yuriko Oyama did not want to go, but she was too damn curious. 

 

“I knew she wouldn’t come,” said the X-Man known as Colossus.

“Patience, Peter,” Storm responded.

“I don’t even know why you want to trust her, Logan. Angel can be anywhere in Japan, and your first option is to ask Lady Deathstrike to help us?”

Wolverine put out his cigarette. “One, I don’t trust Yuriko. And two, Japan is small. It won’t be too hard to find someone like Angel.”

The south road remained empty for a while, until a car could be seen in the distance.

The red car stopped a few feet away from the team, and the driver stepped out. She wore a black short-sleeved shirt and a short skirt that matched her car. Her sunglasses matched the color of her long, black hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail. “Hello, X-Men.”

“Yuriko,” Logan greeted. He stuck out his hand, but she did not shake it.

“What is it you wanted to tell me?”

Beast walked up to her and pulled out a picture of Angel Salvadore, a former student at Xavier’s School for the Gifted Youngsters. “We’re looking for a girl by the name of Angel Salvadore. We were told she was in Japan. She’s been…missing for a while. We were hoping that you would have seen her anywhere?”

Deathstrike took the picture. “Hmm…. ‘She American?”

“Yes. She is a little young in that pic--.”

“I have not seen her.”

Peter nodded his head and began to walk back to the jet.

“But I know someone who has.”

Peter stopped walking. Everyone looked at Deathstrike, waiting for her to continue. 

“I have a friend that works at a strip club down in Tokyo. I remember him saying something about a girl named Angel something. He told me a lot about what she looked like and what nights she would be working. It sounded like she’s been traveling to many places, and she’s kept her same job; she’s a striper.”

Logan thought about the time he had first found Angel. She was fourteen. He did not know why he started thinking about that, but he had not seen her in a long time and did not know if she would look the same as she did. He did know one thing; she was not a mutant anymore. 

“Did your friend ever tell you where she was going?” Nightcrawler asked.

“Yah. Los Vegas. He’s wanted to go there for years. He wouldn’t stop telling me about how lucky--.”

“Hang on,” Storm interrupts. “Sorry, but how do we know that what you say is true?”

Deathstrike looked back at the weather mutant. “Well, I kind of thought Logan and I had settled our differences before he died.” She then looked back at Logan. “And you still have a lot of explaining to do, Logan. How are you here? Last time I checked, you were killed, like, one or two years ago.”

“That still remains to be answered to us, Yuriko,” Kurt Wagner tells her. “However, you would be of much help to us if you are positively sure that your friend said Vegas.”

“Send a telepath into my mind, fuzzy. I’m telling you the truth.”

Everyone exchanged glances before they all thanked Deathstrike. Except for Wolverine. He felt like she didn’t earn his.

 

“I’m setting the coordinates to Los Vegas,” Beast informs everyone. “It’s big, so we may need to think of a plan.”

Before anyone could answer, there was a scream from outside.

“DO NOT FLY! DO NOT FLY!”

Suddenly, someone was on the jet, staring directly at a pissed off Wolverine. “What’ya think you’re doin’, Yuriko?”

She sat down across from him, obviously not about to leave even if they forced her. “Nothing personal, boy. But I’ll do anything to get in on a good story.”


	2. The Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been too long. I was thinking about stopping this series, but then I had some alternative ideas. They may come off as a little f`forced at first, but all elements to the plot that may appeal that way to people will be a part of the build up. Enjoy!

Hello, Yuriko.

Everyone recognized that voice, even Yuriko. “I thought he was dead, too.”

I am dead, Xavier’s voice responded. But I am still communicating telepathically.

“Why?”

“He’s helping us find Angel,” Storm responds. “He’s also trying to find out why Logan is alive.”

Yes. And it appears that you have made the right choice to come along, Yuriko, Xavier says. There are things you and Logan do not know about that you may be able to help us with.

“What?” she and Logan seem to say together. To both of them, that entire sentence did not sound right.

I switched the coordinates to take you to the answers. You may recognize them, Yuriko.

She stood up and walked towards the front. She stared at the screen reveling the location. “I—I do. It’s my old house. How do you—?”

I’m—there—someone--….

“Better get used to that,” Logan said.

“He’s not usually able to stay in contact with us for so long,” Kurt said.

Yuriko sat back down, pondering on about how she was going to get through this.

 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Wolverine. This was my house.

The old house was run down. No one had lived in it for years, that was obvious. It looked like it could fall at any moment. Yuriko was not afraid, though. She could never be scared of her past before her past.

“Yuriko,” Nightcrawler said to her, “perhaps it would be best if I came with you. If something were to happen, I could get us out fast.”

Yuriko nodded and let Nightcrawler wrap his arms around her.

“Kurt,” Storm called, pausing to hear a few scary noises from the house, “be careful. Please.”

He blew her a kiss. With a loud BAMF, The two had vanished.

 

When they reappeared, the two could both agree that it was cleaner than any other abandoned house. There was no furniture, but the walls and floor did not look as torn apart as the outside of the house. There were still cupboards and a counter in the kitchen, and they looked new. Kurt and Yuriko looked around, hoping to find a piece of paper or something that would give them a clue as to what the professor had meant. They had figured that that was smart, seeing as how Xavier had not told the X-Men what it was they were looking for. 

But that wasn’t what Kurt had entirely on his mind. I heard ‘someone’, he thought to himself. The professor had said ‘someone’ before he left. Did someone stop him? Will we get to talk to him again? Who is—?

“Hey, Nightcrawler!” 

Kurt found Deathstrike hunched in a corner, holding something small. It appeared to be a hard drive, blue and green but a splatter of black paint or marker was noticeable.

“I bet with the right equipment,” Deathstrike explains, “I can plug this into my brain and retrieve the possible information.”

“That…does not sound safe. How can we be so sure it’s important, anyway?”

“Because this house is abandoned, Nightcrawler. I don’t think any old hard drive would be in an abandoned house if it wasn’t a little backstory behind it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I know this one was short. But there's always a short chapter, am I right?`


	3. The Search For Angel

“I think we should plug it into me now.”

Beast immediately shook his head at Yuriko. “Best we wait until we’re back at the school. We will plug it in with the right tools, as preforming it hear may be a little too hard and complicated. Plus, it’s a dangerous thing to do to yourself.”

She snorts. “You X-Men are beginning to sound like my parents. Or parents of your own children.”

“Now I know where she gets it from,” Wolverine mummers. 

“You know, even when you’re whispering I can still hear you men,” Deathstrike yells at him.

“Well, look who’s WHISPERING!”

“Guys,” Storm begins, “are we really going to turn this into a fight?”

“They don’t have to,” Colossus responds, “because we have landed.”

 

After changing into some normal clothes, the X-Men and Lady Deathstrike begin to walk through the city (thanks to Kurt for getting them in quicker). 

After getting a few looks from both humans and mutants, Wolverine reminds everyone that they are all looking for Angel and Angel only.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Deathstrike says, “except for the fact that we are in Vegas and there are, like, two hundred clubs in total. A young girl could be in all of them, but if we are just looking for the one—”

“That is why we are splitting up, Yuriko,” Storm interrupts.

“Well, still. Some girls may look alike to our guy friends.”

“I’ll know its Angel when I see her,” Wolverine concludes.

After they found the perfect meeting spot, the X-Men decided to split up into teams of two. Storm and Beast were together, and Nightcrawler and Colossus were together. Wolverine had decided from the start that he would partner up with Deathstrike.

“Yah, sure,” Deathstrike said before they all separated. “He’s just bringing me so that he doesn’t disappear into a young woman’s bedroom!”

He grabbed her arm and they were the first to leave.

 

It wasn’t until the sun had begun to set when the X-Men decided to report on their progress so far (even though it was obvious that they hadn’t accomplished much because no one had reported anything in hours). 

Through their earpieces, they began to share. 

“We searched through many clubs,” Beast told them, “but we haven’t found anyone who even looks like Angel.”

“We found a girl that said she knows Angel and that she works at the club a little ways down from where Peter and I are now,” Nightcrawler said.

“Did you go in?” Storm asked.

“No.”

“You two should go inside and, when you find her, contact us right away.”

“We’ll keep looking just in case,” Wolverine said. “Remember to explain the situation to her slowly. She may not believe you at first.” They signed off.

Wolverine and Deathstrike walk into a club that seemed a little more inappropriate than the other ones. From the looks of half the waitresses and dancers there, both of them came to the conclusion that it was a strip club.

“I’ll buy you a drink, darlin’,” Wolverine offered Deathstrike.

“I’m good.” She shows him a fake smile.

“You’ll die of heat. This city is too damn hot.”

Her smile becomes real. “Have your flirting methods ever worked on another human being before—?”

“Hang on.” He sniffs the air a few times before he turns toward the stage, “I got a scent.”

Before Deathstrike can say something, a voice is heard through the speakers. “Gentlemen. Tonight, we have a new dancer for you all. She even said that she’d take her time with everyone, so long as they spark her interests. She’s young, talented, and a real angel once you get past her bad side. And that’s no lie. Here she is! Our Angel!”


	4. Angel's Thoughts

Light-brown skin. Long and curly black hair. A black bikini. Visible tattoos on her arms, shoulders, and back. 

Angel Salvadore. In her early twenties.

Immediately, Wolverine contacted the others. “I found her. She’s at the strip club across from that pink and gold casino.”

“The one with the giant sign that says ‘Gambling For Love’?” Nightcrawler asked.

“Yes. I can see it from here.”

“We’re close,” Colossus informed. “Should we—?”

“No. I think it would be best if I explained this situation, since I saw the vision.”

“By the way,” Deathstrike interrupted, “when he says I found her, he really means we.”

“Logan,” Storm begins, “we’ll outside of the club. Contact us if something happens.”

Wolverine and Deathstrike watch Angel pole dance for about two minutes, dance alone for another five, and then disappear behind the purple and glitter covered curtains. 

People really seemed to like her. Even Deathstrike. “Gotta say,” she told Logan, “they weren’t kidding when they said she was young.”

As soon as Angel left the stage, the two began to push their way out of the crowds to find a door leading to the dressing rooms. Once they found the door, they were surprised to find that no one was keeping an eye on it. 

“Maybe the security guys are on break?” Deathstrike suggested.

Wolverine wasn’t listening. His mind wasn’t on Angel anymore, but rather that new and sexy version of Angel. How could that have been her? he thought. I can’t remember a lot about her, but I know she wasn’t so exposed all the time.

 

Angel Salvadore miserably sat down at a mirror. The four other strippers who shared a dressing room with her were now her new friends. After a week of waiting for her time to shine, Angel had gotten to know all of them. She felt as if she could trust them with all her secrets. She wanted them to know her story. So, she told them everything.

Now, she twirls the curls of her hair, waiting for someone to start a conversation.

“Anyone spark your interest tonight?” asks a stripper with long, blue-black hair.

“No one, Zoe,” Angel replies. 

“Girl, you can’t just fill up your broken heart right away by finding someone else.”

“Especially when you decide to look at a strip club,” adds a girl with short, brown hair.

“You met your boyfriend at this club, Grace,” Angel tells her, laughing a little.

“Well,” Grace began, “Sid met hers at a tobacco shop. You think that’s romantic?”

A girl with shoulder length black hair and tan skin grabbed a hairbrush from the dresser. “I’m just glad I finally found someone dangerous in my life,” Sid said in a quiet, light voice. “My boyfriend would jump off a moving train to impress me. Evan is too shy for Grace. You need someone who’s afraid to be scared.” She was now speaking to Grace.

“What was Barnell like?” Grace asked Angel. “Or would you rather not—“

“Funny. Spirited. Shy. Daring.”

“Did the kids get their personality from their dad?” Zoe asked her.

“Well…I guess Tito did…just a little. But he’s a little more determined than his father, mother, and his brothers and sisters.” She paused for a minute. “I can’t wait to see them again. To start a new life with them. But no matter what, I know I can’t escape the day my perfect life as a mother and a superhero blew up in my face—”

A girl with orange dreadlocks interrupted Angel’s spoken thoughts. “Hey, I think I hear—”

Immediately, the door swung open. There stood a man in a leather jacket and a girl in a short, grey dress, wearing glasses. “We need to talk to Angel. Like, now,” says the man.

“Sir,” Zoe tells him, “we can’t let you in without—”

“It’s all right,” Angel said. “There’s no need for that. I know him.” She shakes her head at him.

 

After explaining all he could to Angel, including the parts about Deathstrike, the most Wolverine gets out of her is a few sighs of disbelief and some sniffs. But she quickly finds the strength she has to tell them both that she will not leave her job.

“Job?” Deathstrike questions. “Girl, your ‘job’ is a waste of your time. All your doing is traveling to different places and staying there for, like, a month before you take off again.”

“Vegas is good for me, Lady,” Angel snaps. “I need to find someone new in my life. Someone who can help me with the kids.”

“Most of them are teenagers now, Angel,” Wolverine tells her, “and I heard Tito is in college now.” 

“How—”

“We know everything about you and what happened to you after you lost your…powers. What team you joined, what—”

“I can’t believe you, Wolverine. You stalked me.”

“Angel. I know that a lot has happened to you. I know that you want to do what is best for your children and for yourself. But if you come with us, I swear on my life that we will find the person who killed Beak.”

Angel doesn’t know what to say, other than You really think I’m going to fall for that one? But she just scratches her head and wonders. Is this the best thing to do? And if not, what would happen to her next? “Fine. But let me at least exchange some phone numbers first.”


	5. Back to The Lab

It was a long flight back home. By the time the team got back, it was eleven thirty at night. The only ones who seemed to stay awake the entire night were Wolverine, Beast, and Lady Deathstrike.

Unlike the others who fell asleep in the lab, Angel fell asleep in her new room. She didn’t stay asleep for long, though. She eventually came down to the lab early that morning to find Deathstrike complaining to Beast.

“I have a healing factor, so I’ll be fine. Just hook it into me.”

“Yuriko, it’s dangerous because we could damage your brain. You may not remember anything after the procedure and you might try to kill us.”

“I’ve done this before. Just—”

“Let her have it this moment, Hank,” Logan tells him. “I’m not good with science, but I think Deathsrike should be in charge of remembering the information right now.”

“Yes. Thank you.” She turned towards Wolverine and smiled.

“All right.” Beast hesitates as he plugs the hard drive into Deathstrike’s head. Angel almost shrieks when she finds a hole in Deathstrike’s head. Wolverine smiles at her. 

“I’m used to it, child,” Deathstrike tells her. “It won’t hurt one bit.”

Angel nods and inches closer to Wolverine. 

“Ok, we’re set,” Beast says. “Everything Yuriko sees will be transferred to this screen.”

“Wow, really?” Deathstrike asks him. “That’s kinda cool.” Then, the X-Men disappear. 

One-second flashes of people screaming are all Deathstrike can see. She did hear something along the lines of “YOU WON’T TAKE MY FAMILY!” and “LIAR!” before she began to feel something hot on her toes.

She tried to think, but she couldn’t even speak. The hotness on her toes had begun to make its way up to her stomach. She started to see fire, hear laughter. Right in front of her was a red diamond. As soon as she saw it, the hotness was all over her face. Was it causing the fire? 

A girl screams and a boy cries out in fear and pain. Deathstrike can here them begging for something. But it is very unclear when she can hear her own screams in the background as well.

Deathstrike sits up as soon as she sees the X-Men’s faces. Angel looks scared out of her mind. Her skin is almost grey. “What kind of hard drive—?” Deathstrike begins.

“I saw Mr. Sinister,” Storm’s voice sounded. She, Nightcrawler, and Colossus had appeared to have awoken and are now standing beside Deathstrike’s bed. 

“Ja,” Nightcrawler agrees, “I saw the jewel. It had to have been him.”

“Who is Mr. Sinister?” Angel asked, still spooked.

“A mad mutant scientist who uses his own kind against themselves,” Colossus explains. “We’ve battled his army too many times before to learn all about this guy.”

“Logan,” Nightcrawler begins as he walks up to his friend, “you don’t suppose Sinister…” He paused. “…cloned you?”

There is silence. Wolverine starts to think about the lab he had escaped from. He had seen the doctor and some other boy. The boy must have been the one to clone him, but Sinister may have been the one to give him the order.

“I know where to go,” he announces. “I still have a scent. I’m going back to that lab.”

Storm nods. She turns towards Angel. “Get dressed, Angel. We’re—”

“No. She’s not going. None of you are.” He leaves his team. Just me, he thinks.

 

It was a short flight, really. Wolverine flew across a few rivers, and then he was at a small island. He remembered when the base was located in Alaska. That was a long flight. 

Once he landed, he began to pick up a familiar scent. He knew it all to well. Riptide. That creep is all around me.

No sooner had he left the jet, than another one appeared. It landed, and out stepped the others, with Deathstrike in the front. Wolverine is furious, and becomes especially annoyed with Deathstrike once she gives him a little wave. “I’m not sure you heard me when I told you to stay.”

“Aww, but Wolvie,” Deathstrike says in a childish voice, “it’s so boring without you around.”

“This is my fight, Deathstrike! I’m—”

“Wolverine,” Angel begins. She is wearing her Tempest uniform, which she has decorated with a large X on the chest and belt. “Technically this is my fight, too. Whatever concerns you concerns me, because you said that this all involves the death of my husband. Maybe this Sinister guy needed him for—”

Wolverine motions them all to follow him.

 

“Are you sure it’s abandoned?” Colossus asks, his body transforming from skin to metal.

“Never said it was, Peter. I did get a sent of Riptide once I landed.”

“You mean him?” Angel runs over and hands Wolverine a small bottle. The word Riptide is neatly written on its side, but it’s obvious that the bottle wasn’t touched in years.

Wolverine opened it. A single silver hair fell into his hand.

“Gross,” Angel said at once. “Who’s hair does that belong to?”

“I think,” Nightcrawler’s voice sounds, “this caused the scents, Logan.”

The three walk towards the others. Bottles, blood, flesh, and hair cover the floor. The Riptide on most of the bottles is crossed off. Wolverine could care less about Sinister having a little fun with his Marauders. He begins to shout, without any second thoughts. “SINISTER! COME OUT NOW!”

“Logan sama,” Deathstrike begins.

“He’s not here,” a voice is heard. Then, the shadows are clear.

Scalphunter, Harpoon, Arclight, Blockbuster, Prism, Vertigo, and Scrambler appear in front of the team. “Now,” Scralphunter says as he loads his gun, “you can come with us and live longer, or you can die trying to kill.”


	6. Spain

Everything turned crazy at once. 

Angel didn’t even know what was happening. She was just flying and shooting water and fire from her hands. She landed for a second, and then felt someone grip her arm. She turned to face Harpoon, who held his glowing weapon up to her neck. “You’re coming with me, sexy—” Five claws pierced the young Inuit’s body, and he fell to the ground, drowning in his own blood.

“DEATHSTRIKE!” Angel screamed. “YOU KILLED HIM!”

“I know,” she said as she ran towards Blockbuster.

Angel turns to face Wolverine. “Jesus Christ, man! What did you do to piss these guys off?”

Colossus smashes Prism with one hit. “It’s a long and complicated story,” he responds for Wolverine.

 

“THIS IS INTENCE!”

Vertigo peeks out from behind the wooden crates that she and Scrambler were protecting themselves with. “The X-Men were fools to bring Wolverine back to this place.” She stops to listen to the shouts and powers. “This fight is almost quiet,” she laughs.

“I think that’s because we’re one spinning, ninja star making, laughing Marauder short,” Scrambler tells her.

“You know what, Sung? I’m not sticking around to see what happens next.” She grabs him by his jacket and runs towards the back from where they found the X-Men.

 

As soon as the two were outside, Scrambler manages to break free from Vertigo’s grip and immediately starts to yell at her. “THIS IS CRAZY! MY IDEAS ARE SMARTER! IT’S OFFICIAL!”

“No, you’re still full of dumb ideas.” She leads him towards the smaller jet, assuming that the X-Men must have come with two of them. She smashes the pilot’s door open with a rock she found and climbs inside with her teammate. “I hope you still know how to hot wire.”

Scrambler rolls his eyes. “I’m doing this for you, Vee.”

 

Wolverine pulls his claws out of Arclight. Everyone else except for the X-Men are dead. 

“Logan,” Storm says, “Sinister can’t be here. He probably would have revealed himself by now.”

“Yah. You’re right. It was for nothing,” he said sarcastically. 

“Wait,” Beast started, “where’s Vertigo?”

“She was here?” Colossus asked.

“I saw her—”

Wolverine runs out of the room. The others follow him out of confusion. 

 

The last thing they see as their jet flies away is a young man, sticking up his middle finger and grinning like a psychopath. Then, the jet is gone.

Nightcrawler sighs. “Scrambler. The weakest got away, somehow. And you’re probably—”

“Elf,” Wolverine told him, “don’t say anything.”

 

“I’m setting up the tracking device on the other jet,” Wolverine announces. 

Everyone is so focused on finding the two Marauders, that they don’t even notice Angel’s confused looks. She tries to ask them why they are going after these two, but no one seems to want to explain.

“Logan,” Beast says after thirty minutes of following the tracking device, “look. They’re in Spain, now. The tracker just stops there.”

“Guess the jet broke down,” Deathstrike says. 

“If you hadn’t come along, Yuriko, none of this would be happening,” Wolverine snaps. 

“Yah, well, if we hadn’t come along, then you would be stuck on that island. You would also be dead! You’re healing factor isn’t as strong as it used to be.”

“I went a long time without my healing factor and survived!”

“Until you died and had to have Sinister clone you like his other mutants!”

The rest of the flight was only filled with the voices of these two.

 

Once in Spain, Beast finds that the tracker is locating them to a small village. Even as they land, Wolverine and Deathstrike continue to argue. One of the X-Men members has decided to break it all up. “Guys, please stop—” Nightcrawler tries. 

“You know what?” Deathstrike ignores him. “You’re scared of me. You don’t need me on this mission. You’re not even thinking about Angel!”

“Don’t drag her into this! You didn’t have to come!”

“You think this is all about you, but even I play an important role in all of this!”

“Oh yah?”

“Yah! The hard drive was found in my house! Remember?”

“YAH! I GET IT! BUT IF YOU—”

“SHUT UP!”

Everyone turned to face Nightcrawler, whose face wet from blue to violet. The team was silent for a few minutes; even Storm didn’t say anything to her fiancé. 

“I—I’m sorry. But, we’re trying to find a few killers. Remember?” He teleported off of the jet as soon as he finished his question. 

The X-Men silently walked off the jet, only to find Nightcrawler walking back towards them, holding something. His face seemed to get even more violet out of rage. But his voice was still calm. “They tricked us.” He showed everyone the small, grey box’s back, which was cut open with wires hanging out of it. It was the jet’s tracker.

“Great,” Storm responds, “now we know that they could be anywhere in Spain, now.”

“They could be anywhere in the world right now,” Deathstrike replies back.

“Alright,” Beast begins to say, “let’s not—”

“Guys?” Angel points in the distance. Everyone can clearly see the smoke. “Maybe they crashed.”

Wolverine sniffs. “No.”

 

To everyone, except Wolverine’s, surprise, they do not find a jet, but a burning building. The entire house is on fire, from the roof to the ground. Wolverine knew that it had happened recently.

It looks like Angel’s house, he thought to himself. He looked back at her, only to find a couple tears streaming down her cheeks. She is thinking exactly what he is thinking. 

“Logan,” Storm says, pointing at the front lawn.

Wolverine hadn’t noticed the man, slouched on the ground, holding what appeared to be the burnt corpse of a young woman. It wasn’t Scrambler holding Vertigo, though. Wolverine new the scent.

Riptide.


	7. Riptide's Resque

You’re being watched, the voice inside his head told him. He didn’t want to lift is head up, but anger told him to do so. He stood up once he saw the group, because he knew exactly whom they were. Some of them, anyway.

“X-MEN!” he screamed. “GET OFF MY PROPERTY! I—”

Without thinking, Colossus runs as fast as he could up to the crazy killer. “YOU HEARTLESS MURDERER! I WILL KILL YOU FOR GOOD!”

“PETER!” Storm screams.

Riptide begins to spin at once, throwing shurikens and cursing Colossus. Peter tries to aim for the mutant’s throat again, but it appeared that Riptide had time to learn how to dodge those kinds of attacks.

The two don’t even realize that Angel has run to Colossus’ aid. But, in a strange way, Riptide’s too. Why are they fighting like this? I thought the X-Men helped mutants. 

The others stayed put. Something was keeping them back. A familiar voice that they hadn’t heard in a long time.

X-Men let me handle this—

“Let us pass, Charles,” Storm yelled. “Angel could—”

“STOP!” Angel screamed, standing in front of Colossus and Riptide. She instantly knew that the weird looking tornado guy was the owner of that hair they had found in the bottle back at the lab. She had never met another person with silver hair. “We don’t need to fight right now! We can just talk this—”

Riptide immediately, out of anger, sadness, and annoyance, struck Angel across the face. The impact was so hard, that Angel fell to the ground, landing on her face. In fact, the impact was to hard, that the other X-Men could hear the slap from where they were standing.

“GET OUTTA HERE, GIRLY,” Riptide told her as soon as she hit the ground. “THIS DOESN’T FUCKING CONCERN—c—concern….” Without finishing, Riptide fell to the ground, unconscious. 

Get him on the ship, Xavier’s voice told the X-Men.

Nightcrawler teleported Riptide onboard the jet and then came back for Angel, as fast as he could. “Liebling, are you all right?”

Angel whimpered softly, clutching her right cheek. 

“I got you.” He helped her off the ground and back to the jet.

 

Storm tied Riptide’s hands up with a rope, knowing that he would not stay unconscious forever. As she finished, she noticed something on his right cheek down to his neck. It looked like a burn mark. Must’ve got it when he set the house on fire. Why did he do that? Who was that girl in his arms? 

She pushed back the hair that was in his face. Though he was not awake, he looked in pain. His eyes were closed tightly and his breathing was heavy. Storm guessed that the burns, which probably weren’t just on his face, were hurting him badly.

Nightcrawler sat next to Angel, who said that she wanted to be alone. But Nightcrawler wanted to comfort her, and anyone who was in pain. “We’ll put ice on it once we get back, ok?”

Angel nods. “Kurt…the last time I was slapped that hard…was when I was fourteen…. I forgot how much it….”

“Best not to rub it too much,” he said, moving her hand away from her face. “Did your parents—?”

“My father.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Kurt, why are we wasting our time? First, we were helping me an’ Logan. Then, we were chasing these other two mutants. And now, we’re helping some dude who Peter obviously knows and dislikes?”

“Those killers we fought at the lab call themselves the Marauders. A long time ago, they killed hundreds of mutants living under the streets of Manhattan. Peter killed Riptide once. And, as much as it pains me to say it, we have killed the others before, as well. But Sinister was able to clone them from their DNA. In a way, our battles with these guys will never—”

The jet shakes violently. Nightcrawler runs to Storm’s aid once he sees her fall over. Angel stands up, too. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Beast responds. “Something must have hit us.”

“Like what?” Deathstrike asks, worried.

“I can check,” Angel suggests. “My suit gives me the power to fly. My stupid wings can’t get in my way any more. Plus, I’m faster now.”

“Now hold on—” Wolverine starts, but Angel doesn’t let him answer. She opens the large ramp and flies to the top of the jet.

After about a minute, Angel’s voice is heard. “I don’t see anything. Maybe the engine—”

ZAP

The X-Men see Angel fall. There was a scream, and then a splash. 

“ANGEL!” Wolverine seems to yell first.

 

Wake up!

“Nnnngg….”

You have to see this!

“See—” He stops talking at once.

As soon as his eyes adjust, Riptide hears the scream and the splash. But Wolverine calling for the girl was all he needed to hear in order to start laughing silently to himself. 

You should save her. The voice inside his head was trying to turn against him.

I can’t, he thinks back. I’m a Marauder. That’s…I…. Riptide feels the jet lower. Someone’s going to jump in the river and find the girl.

He allows a star to fall from his wrist. As it falls, the blade immediately cuts his left hand free. He unties the right one. Save her!

“I’m not saving her.”

 

“I’m goin’ in,” Wolverine tells the others. “Get us lower to—”

“Outta my way, old man!”

It happened fast, but everyone knew what it was. Riptide had pushed Wolverine out of the way, and jumped into the river.

 

You’re an idiot, he thinks to himself. 

No, the voice said, you’re not. You don’t have to save yourself only.

SHE’S PORBEBLY AT THE BOTTOM BY NOW! At least I can swim away before.

Out of the corners of his eyes, he sees the body of a girl, floating a few inches below him. He doesn’t intend to grab her, but she just kind of floats into his arms once he moves his feet away from her. He can see that the side of her costume has been burned by something. 

His air is starting to disappear. At once, a tornado boosts the two up towards the surface. As they get closer, Riptide’s heart beats faster and faster. I could drown at the last second if a heart attack doesn’t kill me now.

 

Water splashed the inside of the jet as a large tornado appears before the X-Men. From the wind, Angel falls inside, knocking over Deathstrike.

The tornado dies, and the man fell from the sky. As soon as Riptide hit the water, his body became weak. Everything was spinning, even though he had stopped. I can’t die now, was all he could think.

A gloved hand grabs him by his right arm, and pulls him back up. As soon as he breathes in the air, he begins to cough. It hurt his chest every time, but he wants to let it all out.

“I wouldn’t try to escape again, if I were you,” Nightcrawler told Riptide. “I’ll be watching you, now.”

Riptide is to weak to fight back, as Nightcrawler has grabbed his hands so that he could hold onto him for the rest of the flight. “Why…did you…you…save me…?” he pants.

“Because I’m under orders. I would’ve done at either way, at this point.”

 

“Angel!”

Storm checks Angel’s pulse, and tries her best to get all the water out of her lungs. After pushing down on her stomach for the third time, Angel coughs up water. 

“Let it out,” Storm tells her, resting Angel’s head against her hand. It takes a minute for Angel to stop coughing, but even as she speaks, her voice is hoarse.

“St—Storm? Thank you…thank you….”

“I think…you should be thanking someone else for saving you, darling.”

Angel looks around, confused. When she finally looked at Nightcrawler, he shook his head and pointed at Riptide, who was still coughing, himself.


	8. A Marauder's Secret

“It was a red beam,” Angel explained to the X-Men once they were back in Beast’s lab. “Or, at least…I saw a flash of red.”

“Could’ve been Harpoon,” Storm suggested. “The Marauders may be on our trail, now.”

“Harpoon’s energy is yellow,” Nightcrawler told her, “and I don’t think he can aim that high.”

“Maybe the Marauder sitting in the chair over there knows,” Wolverine said, angrily. 

Riptide sat in a chair, Deathstrike stood behind it with her claws out. In her mind, she was almost begging for him to try and kill someone. Killing the Marauders was quite fun, in her opinion. “We do not wish to fight you,” she told him instead, “so you had better talk.”

“I do not need to tell you about my business,” Riptide tells them, “because it is mine alone.”

Storm walked over to him. “Whom did the corpse belong to? Why did you kill her?”

“Kill me,” he spat.

Colossus began to move forward, but someone rested their hand on his shoulder. He turned around, and was surprised to see who was there. All of the X-Men were.

Charles Xavier.

The last time they had seen him in his spirit form was when Logan had first appeared. They rest of the time they just heard his voice. But in Heaven’s realm, Xavier could not stay in touch with his X-Men for long. He couldn’t even use his powers as well as he used to. 

Without a word, Xavier moves towards Riptide, who is trying his hardest to look away from him. Xavier kneels down, and speaks. “I cannot see your troubles without touching you, at the moment. So, unless you want me to read your mind, you will answer the questions my X-Men have asked you.”

Riptide looks him straight in the eyes. “I would no sooner tell God my troubles. And you had better stay outta my head, Baldy.”

Xavier grabs Riptide’s head.

 

The mind of this man was beautiful, once. Before all the blood, Xavier looked back further into Riptide’s memories. He stops once he sees a little girl. She has long, black hair tied in neat pigtails. She is running, and laughing. Xavier sees that she is playing tag…with a little boy with long, silver hair. 

“I’m gonna catch you, Nerea,” the boy called.

“No you—”

The boy tackled her, and they laughed as they rolled around in the grass. Five other, older boys run up to them and join in the fun. Their parents smile at this. Who knew that seven siblings could have so much fun with each other? Especially when the youngest son was…a little different from his family and friends?

Someone screams. “¡ME MENTISTE! ¡TU NUNCA ME ANASETE! ¡NO ERES MI HERMANO!” The rest trails off.

 

Xavier slowly pulls his hands off the head he was cradling. Its owner’s expression is shocked and sad. Xavier looked back at his team for a second, and then turned back to face Riptide. “Your sister seemed like a nice girl, Riptide.”

Riptide looked down at the ground. “That memory died, along with my real self long ago.”

The room is filled with silence. Wolverine has figured out who the dead girl was. But, somehow, there was a pattern. First, Beak was killed in an explosion at his own house, and then, Riptide’s sister was killed in a fire at her house. Was that a coincidence? 

Riptide broke the silence. “I killed her. But…it was an accident. She lit the house on fire…. somehow she found out…about everything…. I tried to stop it, but…wind does not put out fire…it just blows it in a new direction.” He pauses for a minute, breathing heavily. At first, it’s out of sadness. But soon, his nostrils begin to grow wider, as he is once again mad. “Is there anything else you want to know about my life? Everything this telepath has seen, I’ve kept from everyone. Freaggin’ Sinister has never looked into my mind like that!”

“No. Nothing at all.” Xavier then shocked the X-Men with his next sentence. “But, we could use a Marauder to help us find two of his friends.”

“What?” Wolverine and Colossus say at the same time. Lady Deathstrike is one thing, Wolverine thought, but at least she has actually been on the X-Men’s side before. Why would anyone, the professor no less, open the doors of the Jean Grey School to Riptide of the Marauders?

Before anyone can really start an argument, Xavier fades away. 

“Damn it, Charles,” Wolverine says out loud.

“Before you say anything,” Riptide says, “I’m not staying with you. I’m going back to my home country. And what the hell did he mean by ‘two of his friends’?” 

“We fought the Marauders at Sinister’s new lab here in New York,” Beast explains, “We killed them all, but Vertigo and Scrambler got away. We don’t know why they left their teammates, so we’re trying to find them before they do God knows what.”

Riptide’s face is now spooked. “That…that’s impossible. Scrambler and Vertigo died. They died on the same night Sinister died. You can’t clone someone without him.”

“Well, someone did,” Wolverine says. “And Sinister cloned me.”

“So…you’re dead? And Sinister cloned you?” He looked at Nightcrawler and Storm. “You guys must’ve been pretty freaked out when he appeared one day.”

“Yes,” Kurt replied, “I fainted.”

Angel laughed the word “Really?”

“Ok,” Riptide began, “look, if you’re actually telling me the truth, then I’ll help you find them. But, if you’re lying to me, I swear—”

“I’m not lyin’, bub,” Wolverine told him. “You would be dead right now if I was.”

 

“This is the Danger Room?”

“Ja. It can project holograms of real life events, coming from the X-Men. And you can either use it for real or simulated danger. Sometimes, I use it to remind myself of past memories. But, sometimes the best memories happen in the Danger room. Like, I proposed to Storm in here, while we were training.”

Riptide looked at Nightcrawler. “You an’ Mohawk are a thing?”

“Yes we are. How did you train with the Marauders?”

Riptide thought for a moment. “We had a giant room, like this one. Only, there were no holograms, and there was no fake danger. Everything was real.”

“Gosh. That sounds harsh.”

“I hit Harpoon in the knee once. Prism almost blinded Vertigo. And Scrambler almost killed me when we accidently knocked into each other. All on the same day.”

I’ve never seen an accident like that happen in the Danger Room, Nightcrawler thought. He smiled. “What did you guys do after that?”

“We shook it off.”

Nightcrawler didn’t know why, but he found himself comparing the Marauders to the X-Men. Riptide made it sound like they all got hurt and didn’t kill themselves because of it. All he could think now was, are the Marauders like family to each other?


	9. When Dead Eyes Meet

Angel lay awake all night. She looked at the clock beside her bed. 4:00 am. But she was still wide-awake. Many thoughts were on her mind. _What happened to that girl’s body? Did the police find it? Are we gonna get arrested? Where’s Riptide? Is he still here?_

 Angel hadn’t seen Riptide since he left with Nightcrawler. While they were gone, the rest of the X-Men pondered on what they were supposed to do now. Colossus even suggested that this wasn’t the real Charles Xavier talking to them, but some new recruit from Sinister trying to find a way into the mansion. But Storm mentioned that she did not see Riptide at Sinister’s base, so there must be something going on with him.

 Angel’s stomach growled. Quietly, she gets out of bed and walked down the hallway and to the stairs. Her thoughts had finally stopped, until she got to the living room.

 Really, she had expected to find Kurt sitting on the couch, (because she had once heard that he was nocturnal) but instead, she found Riptide. He lay on the couch on his back. His arms were crossed and his right leg was crossed over his left leg. Angel had just realized that he was wearing a purple leotard that covered everything except for his neck, head, and hands.

 She snuck past him, quieter than before, and moved towards the kitchen. Angel hadn’t eaten at the mansion yet, so she didn’t know where to find everything. But it didn’t take long for her to find the bowls and some cereal.

 As she poured the sweet crackers into her bowl, she couldn’t help but think about what Nightcrawler had told her about the Marauders. _They kill their own kind?_ she thought to herself. _And they are mutants? I mean, freaky shit like that can happen all the time…but…why do they do it if they know they’ll just be killed?_

 Angel walked out of the kitchen, planning to take her breakfast upstairs to her room. But, as soon as she headed for the living room, she stopped, dead, once she saw the head of Riptide looking straight at her. His dead, blue eyes almost glowed in the darkness of the school. At first, he looked at her with a blank expression on his face. But then, he spoke. “You shouldn’t say your thoughts out loud, girly. And good little girls like you should be tucked in at night, yes?”

 “I…didn’t mean to wake you….”

 He shrugged. “I was never asleep. Here’s some advise for you. Don’t believe everything you see. Especially around a Marauder. We could fool you harshly when you least suspect it.” He grinned evilly. “We’re all just full of surprises.”

 Angel decided to just eat in the kitchen, a little scared of passing that guy. _He’s crazy,_ she thought to herself. _He just wants to scare you. Make you leave the X-Men, maybe. Just ignore him._ But a little part of her was agreeing with him. Mostly the part he had said about not believing everything you see. To her, it meant a couple of things. Or at least, she knew that it meant a couple of things. But what exactly?

 Finally, Angel decided to make for her room. She began to think that it was probably silly to be scared of the Marauder. After putting her bowl in the sink, and cleaning up the table to delay herself from going back upstairs, Angel began to make her way back towards the stairs to go back to bed.

 When she was in the living room, she tried her best to speed walk towards the stairs. She didn’t want to meet eyes with the crazy killer like she had twenty minutes ago. _Maybe he’s sleeping now,_ she hoped. But as soon as she was passed the couch, occupied by Riptide, she heard his voice.

 “One more thing.”

 She stops, but doesn’t turn around.

 “Next time you see someone sleeping in this mansion…you might wanna check for their pulse, first.”

 Angel gasped quietly, and then ran for the stairs. She expected to hear some kind of evil laughter behind her. But all she could hear was her heart beating, faster and faster as she ran up the stairs.

 

 

 

“Where’s Kurt?” Angel asks that morning.

 “He wasn’t in bed when I woke up,” Storm responded, cutting a banana. “Maybe he’s in the Danger Room again.”

  _I hope so,_ Angel thought. All she could think about now was what Riptide had said earlier. ‘Next time you see someone sleeping in this mansion…you might wanna check for their pulse, first.’ Angel gulped silently.

 But that would be weird, to only kill off one of the X-Men now. Everyone was there, except for Nightcrawler, so why not kill the rest? _I hope he’s not planning on doing it one at a time,_ she thought.

 It was then that she spotted Riptide, lounging against the wall. As soon as she saw his eyes meet hers, she turned away. Without even noticing, Angel began rubbing her cheek again. It was still sore from when Riptide had slapped her. She didn’t want to make it feel worse by messing with it, but she needed to sooth it somehow.

 Storm was the first to talk to him. “Why don’t you come and join us,” she said, obviously trying to sound nice. Too nice, actually.

 “I’m fine with standing,” he responded, loud enough for everyone to hear.

 Storm didn’t take that for an answer. “You know, socializing with us could make you feel more comfortable. It worked when I was first—”

 He interrupted her by sitting at the table next to Beast, and across from Angel.

  _Great,_ Angel thought, _now he can look at me, and I won’t be able to turn away without looking awkward._

 While everyone ate, Riptide drummed his fingers against the table. Every now and then, Peter would give him a look of annoyance and anger. If Riptide saw it, he would just flash him a smile.

 Logan broke the few minutes of silence. “So, do you have a real name, or are we supposed to call you Riptide forever?”

 Riptide stopped drumming. He looked at Logan. “Janos Quested.” He turned away.

 “What nationality is that?” Yuriko asked, curiously.

 “It is Hebrew and Hungarian. But I am from Spain.”

 “Fascinating,” Hank said. “What was it like growing up there?”

 It was already obvious that Riptide was not enjoying this conversation. “Hot. But I could take care of that by the time I was ten.”

 “Do you speak Spanish?”

 “Um…sometimes, I guess. Only when I want to keep things to myself. Or if I am really mad and some words just slip out. But not often.”

 “Cualquier otro Merodeadores hablan español?” Angel asked him.

 Riptide seemed to jump at that. The other X-Men even looked at her with confusion. Angel looks around, her cheeks turning pink. “My family is Afro-Latin American. Plus, I learned a few languages while traveling. Spain is a beautiful place to be, in my opinion.”

 Riptide smiled for a second, before returning to his ‘uninterested’ look.

 “All right,” Logan said, thinking that it was about damn time they get down to business. He pulls out some records of Scrambler and Vertigo that the X-Men have kept for years. “They are pretty well known to most mutants, by now. So, I don’t think they are being house held.”

 Riptide examines them. “These are very old. You haven’t updated, man. Look, I don’t know a lot about Scrambler, but Vertigo has _defiantly_ improved herself over the years. Do you have others? Of the Marauders, I mean.”

 Logan hands him the rest of the Marauders profiles. Riptide is looking at Prism’s, and then begins to shake his head. “I may have to tell you some things about this guy. Because he’s not _as_ easy to break, any more.”

 “I shattered him with one punch yesterday,” Peter told him.

 “I said _as_ easy to break, Tin Man. You guys shouldn’t rely on all this information that you’ve collected years ago. Sinister knows how to upgrade his players.”

 “How much have Vertigo and Scrambler changed, exactly,” Storm asks.

 Riptide laughs. “How should I know? I haven’t seen them since they died on Muir Isle. I didn't even see it happen.” But then, he stops laughing. His new expression shows that he remembers something. “But…I was told by…Sabretooth that Sinister was killed…and that he was one of the last Marauders left. That I was one of the last Marauders left.” He turns angry again. “You _are_ tricking me. This can’t be happening. Sabretooth _is_ a Marauder. He would be off fighting you, not hanging with me. Vertigo and Scrambler are—”

 “I don’t want to tell you this again,” Logan starts. “Sinister cloned me. Which means someone cloned Sinister. And Sabretooth is a member of the Hellfire Club, at a school for little brats that—”

 “What Logan is trying to say,” Yuriko interrupts, “is that Sinister is alive, and that he must know you are, too. Because, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I didn’t see Riptide or Sabretooth at Sinister’s base.”

 “Yah,” Beast says, “you’re right. And I don’t think Sinister is the kind of guy who would waste clones if he knew that another one was—”

 Somehow, the color in Riptide’s eyes turned from a pale blue, to an even paler shade of white. Without a word, he stood up and walked out of the kitchen.


	10. The Danger Room

Kurt Wagner pulled his sword out of the pirate that had decided to challenge him. It was no surprise to him that he had won his _own_ challenge. So he didn’t even bother to acknowledge to himself that he has improved his sword fighting skills since he fought _real_ pirates while trying to stop his father from taking over Heaven and Hell.

 As soon as he told the Danger Room to stop the simulation, the doors opened. Kurt had expected Ororo to be there, asking him how long he was down there. But instead, Kurt saw a different weather maker.

 “What is troubling you?”

 “Sinister didn’t clone me,” Riptide said, angrily. “You fought them all. But _I_ wasn’t there? How long has he known I was alive? How did he find out?” He began to pace, back and fourth. “He told me himself. I am one of the most powerful members of his team, and his missions would not be complete without me. And maybe, if your ghost teacher had—”

 “Professor Xavier?”

 “SHUT UP!” Riptide paused for a moment before resuming his complaints. “Maybe if Professor Xavier had just killed me on Muir Isle, I wouldn’t be in your school. Vee an’ Short-stuff wouldn’t have run away if I was there. Nerea would…still be alive.” He stopped pacing and looked at Kurt. “Have you ever felt so much regret? Not because of the things you’ve done as an X-Man, but what you’ve done to lose a family member? One that you promised to stay with forever?”

 Kurt did. He had lost Amanda. But, unlike Riptide, he couldn’t save her. He wanted to tell him what had happened the night Amanda had sacrificed herself, but probably wouldn’t calm Riptide down. He could have saved his sister, but things went differently that day. “Calm down,” Kurt told him. “Sinister…probably had reasons for—”

 "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH PAIN I WENT THROUGH?” he snapped at Kurt. “HE TORTURED ME! HE TRACKED ME! I COULDN”T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT KNOWING HE WAS WATCHING ME! AND…and…now…after all that…I’m just a toy that a child can forget about after two weeks…?”

 It was silent. Kurt was rendered speechless, though he had done his best to hide it from Riptide, who had allowed his hair to cover his eyes. He then threw a shuriken, which hit the wall, and _clanged_ once it hit the ground. “I think,” Kurt began, “Sinister might have told you that you were the most powerful on the team…to manipulate you into joining him for as long as he lived. He may have told all the Marauders this so that they would feel more powerful over all the mutants.”

 “Well, Sinister always seemed fascinated in my powers. He would always ask me to make shurikens, even when I wasn’t the focus of the conversation. And even as a child, I could sense his presence.”

 "If you are saying that he knew who you were when you were a child, and that he loves your powers, then Sinister may have been following you—”

 “No. That’s not what happened.”

 Kurt had expected him to explain what _had_ happened, but Riptide was probably done for now. _I want to help him, now,_ Kurt thought. _I don’t see how we couldn’t have known this. The Marauders were always very secretive, but how have we not known the darker side of things? Have they all felt Sinister watching them?_ “Do you want to practice training with me? So you can cool off?”

 Riptide shook his head.

 “Come on! It helps me whenever I’m angry. When I lost Logan, I would walk through memories until I felt better.”

 “Walk through memories?”

 “Ja.” Kurt told the Danger Room to go back to the time Arcade had imprisoned the X-Men in Murderworld. Once the Danger Room changed to the new setting, Riptide was confused and amazed. “Cool, right?”

 Riptide said nothing. He was to busy looking around the room they were in. It looked like a giant pinball machine. And there were the X-Men, in giant glass balls, rolling around and bumping into each other. “Jesus,” Riptide exclaims. “That looks like it hurts.”

 “Arcade had worse ways of torturing people.”

 “What happened when you actually fought him?”

 “I don’t know, honestly. He captured me, and I had to wait for the X-Men to save me.”

 Riptide laughed a little. Then, Kurt told the Danger Room to switch the simulation to the time the X-Men had fought the brotherhood for the first time.

 “Shadowcat was possessed by her future self, warning us that the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was going to kill Senator Robert Kelly. We had to stop them, or else the world would have been overrun by them.” He pointed to a hologram Sentinel. Next to the small model was its level of danger, in real life and in this Danger Room level.

 “Doesn’t look that big,” Riptide said. “I could probably just kick it down—”

 “That’s not its actual size. I just shrunk it down so I could see it better. It’s a pain to teleport high just to see the model of something that is just a hologram.”

 “So, I know you’ve told me this before, but you can go anywhere in this?”

 Kurt nodded. “Anywhere, as long as your memories have been imported to the Danger Room. Like mine.”

 “It must be easy to remember things.” Riptide looks around. Everything is so virtually real. The X-Men, the Brotherhood, the buildings, the sky. “Can we go back to the massacre?”

 Kurt is puzzled for a moment. “Why?”

 “I want to watch me die.” Riptide half-laughs as he says this.

 In a few seconds, Kurt has gotten the Danger Room to create the scene from Logan’s memories, as Kurt was not there to witness the death of Riptide.

 Kurt watches, as the old Riptide and the old Colossus fight each other. Finally, after the laughter from Riptide is pretty much glued inside of Kurt’s head, Colossus lunges forward. The sickening _KRAK_ noise causes Kurt to stumble backwards in shock. Peter had told him about this day, but Kurt had never imagined it to be _that_ shocking.

 Riptide did not seem at all startled by watching his own death. In fact, he seemed a little more relaxed than Kurt would have been if _he_ had watched his own death happen. And the thing is, he actually has watched it in the Danger Room.

 “It is nice to actually watch this happen, rather than dream about it,” Riptide said.

 “How are you so calm, now?” Kurt asked. “Every time I watch myself die here, I flinch.”

 “You’re not used to it. Simple.”

 “I know that you’ve died other times. But why did you want to see this one?”

 Riptide thought for a minute. “Because it was the time the real me died.”


	11. Trust

While sitting outside of the school, on two chairs by a tree, Storm and Peter watched Kurt talk to Riptide. They could not tell what it was the two were talking about. And that bothered Storm, a little.

 Once she saw Peter’s facial expression, she decided to speak quickly. “Kurt is nice to everyone, Peter. He will give anyone who can help the X-Men a chance. It’s one of the sweetest things about him.”

 “I wish I could read Riptide’s mind,” Peter responds, facing her.

 “I feel uncertain of all this, as well. But, we have to find these two Marauders, and Sinister, as well. Besides, Xavier is the one who said Riptide should stay here. He wouldn’t have if he knew something was wrong.”

 “His powers are weak, Ororo. He’s dead. He can’t be—”

 Peter noticed that Kurt was all by himself, now. Riptide must have left while Storm was talking. Peter stood up and began to walk towards Kurt.

 As he approaches Kurt, Peter already knows what he is going to say. “What were you two talking about?”

 “He asked me about Xavier’s spirit,” he responds.

 “Did you tell him anything important?” Peter sounds a little worried.

 Kurt can tell. “I told him that everyone is confused and has no idea what is going on. And you need to relax. I trust the professor, because Riptide, as well as Lady Deathstrike, whom you trust, would not be here if they were planning something.”

 Peter knows that Kurt is right, but he doesn’t want to admit it. “Your fiancé just said the same thing. I think you get people attached to your own decisions, and you don’t even think about how _they_ feel about the situation—”Kurt teleported. The purple smoke cloud was pushed into Peter’s face. _I hurt him,_ Peter thought, as he waved the smoke away. _But at least I spoke up._

Riptide walked into the living room, only to find Angel. She was sitting in a chair, stroking a blue creature that oddly resembled Kurt. It made a purring noise as she scratched its head.

 “The hell is that?” he asked her.

 She jumped at the sound of his voice. The creature on her lap said “Bamf!” and disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke. They stared at each other for a minute before Angel responded to his question. “It’s a…well, it’s one of Kurt’s little sidekicks. I don’t know what they are _exactly_ , but…they’re cute.” Something else crossed her mind. She wanted Riptide to explain his final words to her that morning. “Did you mean what you said? About the ‘check the pulse’ thing?”

 He smirked. “I tell that to a lot of people to scare them off. I was very pleased when you ran off.”

 Angel frowns. “I didn’t think it was funny.”

 This makes Riptide laugh. He face palms himself and cackles.

 “Do you think everything you’ve ever done in this world is funny?” she snapped.

 He doesn’t stop. He laughs up to the point where he starts to lose his balance. After he got a firm grip on the couch, he calms down. “Girl, if you’ve died as many times as I have, you would start to lose your marbles.” His smile suddenly fades, and he turns his head away from her, slowly. “Some things…just lead to insanity.”

  _Did I—hurt him?_ Angel thinks to herself. “What’ya mean? What happened to you?”

 “Why do you care?” he says almost at once.

 “I’m just curious. You always have this look in your eyes. It’s like…fear mixed with pain and anger. But there’s always excitement, as well.” _Now you’ve done it. You’re totally next on his kill list._

 Riptide doesn’t respond. Instead, he looks down and closes his eyes.

 Without even thinking about asking him, Angel says the first thing that comes to her mind. “If they…abused you…as a child, then I know how you feel.”

 He opened his eyes and looked straight into hers.

 “My step-dad abused me when I was fourteen. Emotionally, physically, sexually, and verbally. By the time I could feel my mutation kicking in…I—I still feel like he could sense it, as well. It still keeps me up at night. That’s why I was up so early last night. But, I’m glad I ran away. Because now I just need a suit, and not wings, to fly. Bet he would be happy to know that I’m just his regular toy again.”

 “You are…not a mutant?”

 Angel shook her head.

 “Doesn’t that make you…the X-Men’s enemy?”

 “Why would you think that?”

 “They fight for mutant kind. Right?”

 “They…fight for the world. And if there’s one thing they’ve taught me, it’s that the _real_ enemy out there is history itself.”

 Riptide seemed a little taken back by that last part. Apparently ‘the _real_ enemy out there is history itself.’ _Does that mean I’m still the enemy?_ He thought, at once. “He…never told us this….”

 “Who?”

 “Sinister. That is not what he told the Marauders.” He began to realize that he was _still_ staring into her eyes. He wanted to ask her how long it’s been since he started doing that, but different words came out of his mouth. “But…this way is…doable.”

 Their conversation stopped once Hank walked in. He hesitated at first, but then gave them a smile. “I was just looking for you two.”

 “What’ya need?” Angel asked him.

 “I’m going to find Peter and the others. May as well get everyone in here to plan ahead.”

 Angel nodded and walked to the kitchen, Riptide closely following. She didn’t know why, but somehow, knowing he was following her made her smile a little.

 

 

 

As they walked through the garden, Logan and Yuriko kept silent. He had asked her if she wanted to see the garden when he saw her put on a flower patterned jacket that was in the back of her new closet. She had agreed so that she could get out of the school for a while. Yuriko didn’t think that Logan would actually tag along.

 Finally, after they entered a path full of rose bushes, Yuriko started up a conversation. “Do you always do this to the new girls?”

 “What? Take them on a little stroll through the garden?”

 “Yes.”

 “No. I just thought you liked flowers. You grabbed that jacket first, right?”

 “Yah. I did. And yes, I do like flowers. Just a little.”

 She allowed her hands to run through the bushes. The thorns cut her, but unlike Logan, her healing factor was still inside of her. Logan kept his head down once he saw her skin heal from the thorn cuts. “So,” she began again, “did you ever expect to see _two_ of your enemies team up with your team?”

 “I can trust you, Deathstrike,” he tells her, “because you’ve been on our team before. I’ve learned to give it some time before agreeing to something. Except, that was a _little_ hard for me to do for Riptide.”

 “Yah. I’ll bet he’ll take some getting used to.”

 “I mean, I think the real question for him is whether he trusts _us_.”

 Yuriko had been holding in a question that was indented for Riptide. But asking Logan might be a little easier, since she had hardly spoken to Riptide since he got here. “I know that he’s died before, and that he’s working for that psycho scientist, but what does he have against our team, exactly?”

 Logan stopped walking. Yuriko moved in front of him, and stared at him. She was just too eager. Logan began. “I remember the screams of the innocent as Riptide’s stars and spikes pierced their bodies. I saw them pass through their skin like a knife cutting butter. His laughter grew louder as the screams died down.” He met her eyes. “If you had been there, Yuriko, you would’ve seen what had happened to him during this.”

 She stared at him, obviously wanting him to continue.

 “Petey was pushed too far. Lunged out at Riptide and broke his neck, in front of all of us. Including the Marauders. I don’t even think Riptide’ll stick around once we find the other two. Probably makes him remember the pain and the darkness.”

 “Do you still remember the pain and the darkness?”

 Logan thought about the adamantium hardening his body. His death was quick and painless. To him, it wasn’t a bad way to go. He died saving people, while Riptide had died killing them. “I’ve recalled it a few times. I’m not scared to remember the feeling.”

 “I wouldn’t fear my death, either.”

 Logan chuckled. “Lots of people would be scared, darlin’. The Marauders are scared of it, and _you_ are still under their category of danger levels.”

 “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 "It means that you kinda’ are afraid of death, and that is why you gave yourself a healing factor.”

 “That’s not why—are you bringing this up because I have a healing factor and you don’t?”

 No. I’m just pointing out that—”

 “I saved your life before you died, Logan.”

 “And then you decided to trade me in so that you could bargain for your own life.”

 She turns angry. She tries to say something, but no words come out of her mouth.

 “You know what, Yuriko? I’m still deciding. Do I or do I not trust you?”

 Yuriko turned around and began to walk away, calmly. As she left him, she mumbled to herself. “No. You do not.”

 Logan watched her leave, thinking about following her. He wondered if she would get lost in the garden and try to find her way out by cutting through all the flowers.

 But she said she loves flowers. Or was that just a lie?

 

 

 

After a good five-minute walk by herself, Yuriko stops in front of the woods. The path seemed to end there, but the flower wall seemed to go on forever.

 She began to feel her eyes tearing up, but she quickly wiped them away with her sleeve. Yuriko told herself that it was foolish to cry over something that was true. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it didn’t have to be true. This could be the start of a whole new life for her. She just had to prove it to the X-Men. She had to show them that they didn’t have to worry about her leaving. _Then again, why did I even come along?_ She thought.

 A twig snapped. She didn’t even have to think twice to know that she was being watched. At first, Yuriko thought that it had come from the woods, but another twig snapped, this time from behind her.

 She turned around, but saw no one. She became half annoyed and half frightened. “Logan?” she called.

 There was silence.


	12. A Trap

Colossus has come to the conclusion that the Marauders are hiding something from them, and that they were obviously expecting the X-Men’s arrival.

 Beast immediately agrees. “And whatever it is, it made Vertigo and Scrambler decide _not_ to stick around.”

 “Maybe it’s a weapon,” Storm suggested. “Maybe they’re planning to re-clone Logan.”

 “Why wouldn’t they wanna see that?” Angel asked.

 “I don’t know,” Colossus responded, “but I do know that we should plan an attack. I mean we know where they are, now. If we—”

 Riptide snorted with laughter. Somehow, Colossus had forgotten that he was there. And now he was just being annoying. “What’s so funny?” he asked, clenching his teeth.

 “Well, there are so many labs. And you just know where _one_ is. Are you positive that they haven’t relocated?”

 “Well, you have any better ideas?”

 “Actually, yes. Find Vertigo and Scrambler, and then ask them what’s going on. Seems more simple than ambushing the Marauders.”

 Before Colossus could argue, Wolverine walked in, looking sad and angry. “Your all having a meeting without us?” he asked.

 “Kurt just went to look for you and Yuriko,” Storm told him.

 “Oh, she’s probably not going to talk to anyone for a while.” He sat down in a chair by the door. “What’s this about?”

 “Well,” Beast started, “I guess we’re torn between two ideas, at the moment.”

 “Yah, an’ one of ‘ems kinda logical,” Riptide said.

 “Ambush or search,” Angel summed up.

 “I’m just saying different labs have different traps. You don’t even know if there’s only one. There could be three traps set up at the entrance.”

 “Well, you must know how to get in and out without being killed, then,” Wolverine told him.

 “Oh, noooooo. I didn’t think _that_ option was still available. And actually, if you haven’t been paying attention, I’m not wanted. I’d have to beg Sinister to let me back in, an’ I’m pissed at him right now. And if he didn’t let me join, I’d have to destroy the security alarms and break in. That would cause you more notice, an’ you’ll all die.”

  _BAMF_

It was so sudden, that everyone had jumped. Not just from the noise, but from Nightcrawler’s discovery.

 In his arms, he held the mangled body of Lady Deathstrike.

 

 

 

In the school’s infirmary, Beast tried his best to put Deathstrike back together. She was missing an arm and both of her legs. When Nightcrawler went in search of them, he found the arm and one leg in the rose bushes, and the other leg in the pool, somehow half eaten.

 Angel was freaking out. She kept pulling on her hair like she was _truing_ to pull it out. She wouldn’t stop asking everyone how it happened. After about two minutes of constant “HOWDIDTHISHAPPEN?!?!HOWDIDTHISHAPPEN?!?!” Angel burst into tears. While Storm was trying to calm her down, Wolverine thought about how he must feel about this. Should he feel guilty for letting Deathstrike walk away, or should he feel satisfied that she was hurt.

 It wasn’t long after Angel started to quiet down when Riptide said the first thing that everyone in the room could listen to. “Did you do this, Wolverine?”

 It was a simple question. But Wolverine still grabbed him by the collar and pinned him against the wall. He made a growling noise at the Marauder before he responded. “I COULDN’T HAVE! YOU KNOW THAT, BUB! I WAS—”

 “Logan, let go of him!” Storm yelled.

 Wolverine dropped Riptide almost as quickly as he had picked him up. Riptide seemed pretty pissed off at him; his brain was full of threats. Though the voice told him to _kill the X-Men_ , Riptide leaned back up against the wall. “Relax, Wolvie,” he told Wolverine. “I was just askin’. This looks like somethin’ you would do. And is she still alive?”

 “Yuriko,” Wolverine called to her, ignoring Riptide’s questions about her. It was bad enough that Angel was still asking questions. “She can’t be dead, right Hank?”

 “She’s not dead, Logan,” Beast assured him. “She’ll be fine as long as—”

 “Hang on.” Wolverine held his pointer figure up in front of the others. After a minute, he turned towards them. There was a look of shock and fear in his eyes. “I smell Sinister.”

 “Are you sure, Logan—?” Nightcrawler began.

 “Yes I’m sure. C’mon, we’re goin’ to the city.”

 The X-Men exchange some looks before Wolverine tells them that they need to get there fast.

 “Wolverine,” Colossus says to him, “we do not know if Sinister has brought an army. And we don’t even know what he’s planning. Why is he here?” He turned towards Riptide. “Maybe someone gave away his location.”

 Riptide grinned slightly. “I had no ways of communicating with anyone who wasn’t in this school,” he said sweetly. “I’m innocent.”

 “Da. I’ll believe—”

 “Do this later.” Storm grabs Colossus by the arm and begins to drag him towards the door.

 “Logan, what about Deathstrike?” Beast asks.

 “Stay here and heal her,” he responds. Wolverine’s eyes suddenly turn towards Riptide, who is about to slowly follow the others. “No. You have to stay to.”

 “What? Why?”

 “If Sinister is here, then he’s probably looking for me. And if you’re here, then he might take you back.”

 “Bullshit! I’m a fighter! Let me—”

  _BAMF_

Riptide waves his hand over his face, trying to move the smell of brimstone as far away from him as possible. Now, it was just him, Beast, and an injured Lady Deathstrike alone in the infirmary.

 

 

 The city was almost abandoned. The lights from signs and billboards were still shining bright, but there were only about ten people walking on the sidewalks and two cars moving in the street.

 Angel was still frightened, wishing to herself that they had let Riptide or Beast go instead of her. _I could have kept Yuriko company. Has it really gotten to the point where I’d rather stay with Lady Deathstrike than go after some doctor?_ “You know,” she started, “it’s so quiet here, you’d almost think you were being watched by a ghost or something.”

 “Actually,” a voice behind them says, “I ain’t a ghost. But I think you’ve already guessed that this is a trap.”

 The X-Men turn to face one of Sinister’s most recognizable Marauders. Sabretooth.


	13. What To Do

 

“What’ya want, Victor?”

 Sabretooth smiled at Wolverine. He looked down at the little man. “I’ve been sent to collect someone,” he told him. “Recently, three Marauders went missing from Sinister, and he would like ‘em back. I was simply told to collect them.”

 “Well, Sinister’s crazy, cause he looses Marauders every time we fight them. Of course they’re missing.”

 “Oh, but they didn’t die, Logan. Two left in one of your jets. I think it was that Asian kid and the nature witch. An’ I’m pretty sure that after picking a fight with Riptide, the man would have probably come to _somebody_.”

 “We would never shelter a Marauder. You can go tell Sinister that we—”

 “Don’t lie to me, Logan. I can smell Riptide from here. And my instincts are never wrong.”

 Angel stepped forward and stuck her middle finger up at Sabretooth. “We said we don’t have him, jerk off. Now get lost!” Before Wolverine could stop her, Angel threw a fireball at the Marauder, hitting him directly in the forehead.

 As Sabretooth regained his balance, he licked his lips at Angel. The burn mark healed so fast, that it was as if Angel hadn’t hit him at all. “Darlin’…you shouldn’t have done that.”

 

 

 

Riptide watched Beast work at attaching Deathstrike’s arm back on to her body. Though she was pretty much ‘shut down’, she still looked a little peaceful. As if she had in her sleep. In all his life, Riptide had never seen someone unconscious, but looks as though they are asleep. “Do the X-Men always leave you? Even if no one is hurt?” he asked Beast.

 “I know how to put her back together. She needs someone to treat her right now. And no. Not—”

 “An’ how am I important to Deathstrike? I should be out there getting my ass handed to me. If the X-Men are dying right now, it is probably my fault.”

 Beast is silent. He finally attaches Deathstrike’s arm to her and then looks up at Riptide. “If you want me to be honest, I think you’re in here because the X-Men don’t feel comfortable fighting Sinister with you. I mean, fighting alongside you—”

 “No, I get it. I just don’t wanna see them all take the gunshot wound for me, if this is even about me. I mean, the blue guy is engaged to Mohawk, and Angel is only a….” He paused. Angel. He wasn’t even sure how he remembered her name. What if she was lying in a pool of her own blood right now? Riptide didn’t want to feel sorry for her if that were the case, but it was just the fact that she was so confused all the time. The questions she asked were funny to Riptide, and he liked answering them. “Never mind. I’m sure they—”

 Wolverine’s voice boomed from the speakers of Beast’s radio transmitter. It was hard to make out most of what he had said at first, but then he said something along the lines of, “Hank get…need you…Sabretooth will kill….” And then all was static.

 “Logan?” Beast tried to contact him again, but Wolverine’s communication devise was obviously destroyed now. Sabretooth probably took care of that. Beast checks on Deathstrike for a minute and then heads towards the door.

 “Hey, you’re gonna leave me alone?” Riptide asked him.

 “Stay put,” Beast said before the door closed.

 

 

 

Once Beast had arrived, he couldn’t believe what he saw first. Wolverine and Colossus were already on the ground. While Wolverine struggled to sit up, Colossus didn’t move one bit.

 Storm was trying to knock out Sabretooth with some lightning bolts, while Nightcrawler kept teleporting around him. Nightcrawler was probably trying to distract Sabretooth so that Storm could hit him, but Sabretooth eventually caught the blue mutant. As soon as Nightcrawler appeared in front of Sabretooth, the Marauder’s claws passed through his ribs almost as easily as scissors cutting paper.

 Angel was throwing more fireballs at Sabretooth, but he ignored every single one.

  _He’s almost indestructible_ , Beast thought.

 “Ahh, it’s good that another X-Man showed up,” Sabretooth said to Beast, throwing Nightcrawler to the ground. “Maybe _you_ can help me find my missing friend.”

 

 

 

“Alright, say it again.” Riptide was talking to himself. “Listen to the Wolverine or leave with Sabretooth. Everything’s a challenge.”

 Riptide had been thinking about just entering the battle to turn himself in, but the risk of being killed instead was pretty much off the charts. In a bad way. “Wait, I don’t need to put up with this. I can just leave this place and go find Vertigo and Scrambler all by myself. We can hide together, or fight together—”

 “Why aren’t you out there?”

 He turned quickly to see Deathstrike, who was still lying down on the bed, awake and smiling.

 “How do you know that there’s a fight going on? And why are you awake? Did you really heal that fast?”

 “I have a healing factor, silly. Plus, I don’t think the X-Men would leave a Marauder in charge of a ‘dying’ patient unless something really bad was happening. No offence.”

 “None taken. But why are you even here with the X-Men? Don’t you, like, hate Wolverine or something? How come you guys are allies all of a sudden?”

 Deathstrike thought about that. She had been thinking about that before she was attacked. And it took her until now to realize it. “I helped them and they welcomed me.”

 Riptide laughed a little. “They must be pretty stupid to believe that.”

 “Have you ever done something that would make the X-Men trust you?”

 Riptide raised one of his eyebrows. “There was no reason for me to help them…because they didn’t help me.” He looked as though he would cry, but his anger held in all the tears. “I mean, I’m a mutant, too. Aren’t I?”

 

 

 

 Storm hid behind a deserted car, trying to heal Nightcrawler and Colossus. Colossus had been knocked out by Sabretooth’s fist, meaning that Sinister must have done some big improvements on him. Nightcrawler’s sides were bleeding, and Storm was wrapping them in as much newspaper as she could find. When she turned and asked Nightcrawler if she was hurting him, he didn’t respond. He had lost too much blood, and had passed out.

 “I’m getting tired of this little girl trying to kill me,” Sabretooth told Beast, who was helping Wolverine back up. Angel was still trying her best to get Sabretooth away from them, ready to face him herself. But when he turned to face her, she froze.

 His smile was big; his claws were still dripping with Nightcrawler’s blood. “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE INVINCIBLE!” she screamed.

 He began to run towards her. “Well, people are just good to me.” He was about to claw at her throat; she shielded herself with her arms, too scared to move and scared to even keep trying.

  _At least I’ll see Barry once this is over_ , she thought as tears streamed down her face.

 “CREED!”

 Sabretooth stopped just in front of Angel. Bothe of them turned to see Riptide, a tornado already forming around his waist. “Leave the girl alone. Leave all of ‘em alone. And go back into the woods!”


	14. Marauder Vs Marauder

 

“You’re a traitor, Quested,” Sabretooth told Riptide.

 Riptide licked his lips bloodthirstily. “It feels nice to be a traitor. You should try it sometime.”

 Wolverine clawed Sabretooth in the back. “WHY THE HELL IS RIPTIDE A PART OF THIS?” he asked Beast and himself.

 Sabretooth pinned Wolverine down. “Oh, I know why. I think he decided to come back into the world of killing. It was what he was made to do—”

 Wolverine felt the impact of Sabretooth’s surprised jolt as soon as one of Riptide’s stars had landed in Sabretooth’s back. Sabretooth got off of Wolverine and turned to face Riptide once again. He pulled the star out of his back. “That tickled, Riptide. I thought Sinister trained you well.”

 Riptide began to spin rapidly. He didn’t stop, even when he saw Sabretooth running towards him. His expression had just turned from angry to scared, when Sabretooth clawed his arm.

 

 

 

Flashback

 

“I’ll strip the meat the meat off your bones before you can reach me, Wolverine.” Riptide tried his hardest to knock Wolverine down with his shurikens. “You heal fast, but there has to be something left of you to heal.” Wolverine moved closer and closer to him, even jumping over his purple tornado.

 “Keep up the infield chatter there, bub.”

 Riptide’s expression had turned to scared as soon as Wolverine sliced at his arm. He yelped in pain and fell to the ground, hoping that he would pass as dead to the X-Man. He wanted badly to vomit his organs, or just all of his blood. But the voice would remind him something. _You’ve felt worse._

 

End of flashback

 

Riptide opened his eyes and saw Sabretooth and Wolverine, fighting once again. He rolled over, clutching his bleeding arm. Angel sat next to him. She looked as though she _wanted_ to help Wolverine, but was too scared to move.

 She looked at him, and then at his arm. “You’re—you’re not just gonna let a few scratches stop you from helping us, right?”

 Riptide grunted as he sat up. “It ain’t just a scratch. Sabretooth shares the same healing factor as Wolverine. And he has adamantium in his body. But Sinister has ways of making people stronger…. He cheats.”

 “Well, does Sabretooth have any weak spots?”

 Riptide nodded. “Yah. But the devil would be dumb enough to take that choice.” He slowly brought himself up into a sitting position. “I’ve learned a few things about Creed over the years. Enough stars above the waist should knock him out. Would’ve worked with anything, actually.” Angel looked at him with a scared expression. “I mean, I’ve never tried it before, but I’ve seen Sinsiter do it while operating—”

 “Janos, he survived your other star thingies, and it would take a lot of them just to hit one spot.”

  _Why did she call me that? Why use my real name? I can just kill her and the others._ The voice mixed with his own thoughts, but he continued to talk, even as they spoke to him. “That’s why I’m going to create a tornado around him.” It just slipped out. Riptide didn’t really think about that choice before announcing it to Angel. Even _she_ looked confused. “If I can get Sabretooth inside of my tornado, I can hit him easier. My winds can extend as long as—”

 “Are you saying that you’re gonna put him inside of you?”

 Riptide smiled at her. “Technically. These powers are still confusing to me. You’ve been there, right?”

 Her eyes were suddenly full of tears. “Please don’t take that risk. He’ll rip you to shreds.”

 “Well, I’m out of ideas, at the moment. Unless you have any suggestions.”

 She said nothing.

 

 

 

Wolverine bit into Sabretooth’s arm, but was knocked down again by a claw to the hip. His lack of a healing factor was bringing him down pretty bad. Sabretooth rested his foot on Wolverine’s cheek, Wolverine yelled in pain as the pressure increased with every second.

 “You’re pathetic,” Sabretooth said to him. Wolverine tried to call for Beast, but remembered that he had told him to check on Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Storm. It was just him, at the moment. “You needed a Marauder and a young girl to save your life. And even _they_ didn’t last long. Your friends are dead, and Riptide’s gonna wake up strapped to a table, waiting form a memory wipe.” He gasped as soon as he finished. With a _shing_ noise that made even Wolverine flinch, Sabretooth removed the shuriken that had been shoved into the back of his throat, through the front of it. The large line in his neck disappeared in an instant.

 He turned around and saw exactly what he had expected to see; Riptide limping towards him, clutching his bleeding arm, but still smiling. The blood was running down his fingers, and it was smeared on his face once he stopped to wipe it.

 “You know,” Sabretooth started,” if you wanted to lose your arm so badly, you could’ve just waited until Wolverine was _dead_.” He removed his foot off of Wolverine’s cheek. The X-Man was too weak to fight back, now.

 Riptide spun with all his strength. Stars and spikes flew from his tornado, some hitting Sabretooth. But that obviously didn’t slow him down. If anything, it just boasted his speed a little.

 And then, he finally entered the tornado.

 

 

 

Beast felt Nightcrawler’s pulse. It was slow, as well as his breathing. “I have to get him back to the school. He’ll die unless—”

 Colossus groaned and opened his eyes.

 “Peter!” Storm embraced him, even though he was still flat on his back.

 “My…head….”

 “Where’s Angel?” Beast suddenly asked.

 “I think she—” Storm paused as she looked over to where Riptide and Sabretooth were fighting. “Why is Riptide here? I thought you told him to stay with Deathstrike.”

 “He just kind of…came,” Beast responded.

 Colossus watched. “He once told me that he was full of surprises. I’m frankly not surprised that he’s here.”

 As soon as he finished, Riptide let out a blood-curdling scream. Even from where they were, the three could see Riptide’s winds mix with his own blood, creating a darker, purplish color.

 

 

 

It was murderer verses murderer. Marauder verses Marauder. Sabretooth dug his claws deep into Riptide’s stomach, but that didn’t stop him from fighting. Riptide clenched his teeth and tried to hit Sabretooth’s pressure point, but his vision was clouding fast.

 Sabretooth notice Riptide’s eyes fighting the urge to roll into his skull. “You’re lookin’ a little tired, Riptide.” He smiled. “You always looked that way. I think it would be best if you just let the darkness take you and get it over with. Sinister doesn’t care about you, anyway. He just wants your corpse as a practice dummy for us. Hell, we could’ve used Deathstrike’s if that teleporter didn’t find her first.”

 Riptide took loud breaths before he worked up enough air in his lungs to speak. “It’s…funny…how Sinister kept you…after you would leave…us and get your ass kicked…by someone and lose. So I’m the traitor?”

 Without seeing where one of his stars had landed, Riptide watched Sabretooth fall to the ground. At least two-dozen stars were in his body.

 Riptide smiled weakly. “It’s always funny when _you’re_ the one to get knocked out.”

 

 

Wolverine sat up just in time to watch the tornado disappear, and some blood splatter onto the ground. There lay an unconscious Sabretooth, and beside him stood a blood covered Riptide.

 Riptide turned his head towards the car where Storm and the others where. “I did it.” He simply called.

 Angel ran over to him, and gagged once she saw his stomach, “Oh my gosh…. It’s torn apart. So is your…oh my—”

“Ehhh…I think I’m going blind. You’re name is Angel, right?”

She noticed that his eyes weren’t even meeting hers. Yet he still reached for her hands. “Yes.”

“I’m ok, girly. I just…taste…iron. Not bad. Is it in the air? Tooth’s bones explode or something?” She was silent.

“Ok. Guess it’s just me.” Angel caught him as him as he fell. She knelt down and turned him over so that she could see his face. His teeth were clenched, but his eyes where only lightly shut. Angel felt his pulse on his neck. He was almost barley alive.

All Angel could think now was _What do I do with him?_


	15. Part 2 Epilog

The first thing that Riptide felt was someone stroking his hand. He wanted to sit up and tell whomever it was to get lost, but once he tried, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach.

 He must have expressed his pain a little too loudly, because the person next him quickly spoke. “Save your strength,” the familiar voice told him. “You’re probably gonna be in here for a little while longer. And you’ve hurt yourself a lot already.”

 He moaned softly. “Angel…how long…?”

 “You were unconscious for three days,” he heard Beast say. “Your arm is healing nicely, but your stomach may take a week or two.”

 Riptide ignored Angel’s words before, and slowly sat up. His arm had scars where Sabretooth had scratched him, but his stomach was wrapped in long bandages. A large red spot stained the front of them. He looks over at Angel, and then at Beast. “Am I shirtless?”

 Before he got an answer, Nightcrawler teleported in. “You are awake,” he observed. “I guess Storm won.”

 “Won what?”

 “We were betting on how long it would be before you’d wake up. Storm said today, but I don’t think she really cared about the bet. I said in two days, Logan said five, Yuriko said a week, and Peter said never.” He grinned.

 “I didn’t bet,” Angel told Riptide. “I didn’t want to think about it.”

 “She actually helped Beast every day,” Kurt pointed out. “We offered to take shifts, but she would always tell us that she’d cover it all.”

 Angel blushed, and poked her tongue out at Kurt.

 He laughed a little. “Hey, I’ll go get the others. I think Logan wanted to tell you something.”

 Riptide felt fear in his body. Perhaps Logan would yell at him for not listening. But really, why should he be scared? “Oh, you really don’t—”

  _BAMF_

“Fuck,” Riptide whispered.

 Angel giggled. Then her she gave him an embarrassed look. “I mean, I didn’t want you to die…without asking you…what made you do it? You could have just gone with Sabretooth and come right back to killing us.”

 He shrugged. “I had a feeling that Creed would kill me, either way.”

  _BAMF_

The room is silent for a moment. Riptide’s eyes darted around, trying to see the X-Men’s faces. After his vision became a little clearer, he decides to ask it. To all of them. “Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? You could’ve just left me there, and then everything would be normal again.”

 Storm smiles at him. “Logan and Peter were considering that. But we decided that we should pay you back…for trying.”

 “Trying?” His eyes grew wide. “Where’s Creed?”

 “We don’t know,” Yuriko responded, “But we—”

 “Alright,” Logan interrupted, “I should probably tell you all the truth, now that ‘Tide’s awake; after the others got you to the infirmary, I went back to bring Sabretooth here. He was still unconscious, but I decided to take him someplace far away. Someplace where he’ll have to find Sinister himself.”

 “Where did you take him?” Angel asked.

 “I think I left him in Florida, honestly. Point is, I let him free so that he could go back to Sinister. Tell him that you an’ me ain’t goin’ down so easily. Clones or not.”

 “You _have_ to find Vertigo and Scrambler before Sinister does,” Riptide told him. “Whatever’s happening, they’ve had enough of it. And I’m not sure Sinister will take us back, at this point.”

 “Yah. I know. And that’s why you’re gonna help us.”

 Riptide looked puzzled. Did they really still want him on their side?

 “When we do find those two, they probably won’t believe the X-Men once we’ve explained the situation. But if you explain it, Marauder to Marauders, they’ll probably take the chance. We can save them, Riptide.”

 Riptide wanted to laugh. _Me? An X-Man?_ He thought. _That’s pretty much what this is about. But me? With a giant X on a belt?_ But then, he looked at the others. They all have the same expression on their faces. Hopeful. Even Angel. Only she may or may not have been crossing her fingers. She didn’t know why, but she had strangely found herself a little attached to Riptide. That started when she helped out Beast in the infirmary. After keeping Riptide company, helping treat him, stripping him of his outfit (he’d never find out as long as she kept her mouth shut).

 Riptide looked back at Wolverine. “Well…could you use a mutant of my abilities?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all again for reading part 2! Like I said before, all chapters will be edited in a while. So just make do with the mistakes and spacing. Part 3 should be coming soon. But right now, I'm going to write an original story about aliens! It'll be on Wattpad one day, because I haven't started it yet. If you wanna read my other story, though, it's at Wattpad under the name CrawlerCraft. The other story was written by my friend and I, and it's about Vertigo and Scrambler. It's kind of a sequel to Skinned Apple, but not really. She also wrote a cute story about Angel and Riptide from X-Men First Class called Warm Embrace. Maybe I'll post it here one day.  
> Part three will focus a little more on Nightcrawler and Storm, as well as Riptide and Tempest. However I'm a little excited to dive into the frienemy relationship between Wolverine and Deathstrike. I'm also gonna make things exciting, and give you conversations between Colossus and Riptide. Won't that be interesting?  
> Anyway, check for updates, and I'll see you soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Extra:  
> Sumimasen was translated from すみません  
> Kon'nichiwa was translated from こんにちは


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